Every now and again, Kate manages to get an opportunity for serious reporting. One of those is the opportunity to be the only woman journalist on a tour of post war Berlin, seeing the broken and damaged country that is left behind in the aftermath of the conflict. One day, as she is being driven through the streets of the Soviet controlled area of Berlin, Kate sees the forlorn figure of a young girl, seated on the stops of a destroyed house. Along with her fellow reporter, Rick Shearer, Mia finds her way back to the ruined house and finds the girl, still seated on the steps.
The young girl, Mia, is starving and is so traumatised by what she has endured that she can't speak. Kate is determined that she needs to find Mia's family, but Kate is only in Berlin for a few days so Rick arranges to place Mia with some old family friends.
They return to New York where, despite the fact that Kate reported on the Nuremberg trials, she still cannot get a permanent role on radio. One of the issues that face any women in the industry is that they can't get jobs because they will just go and get married and have kids. Mia therefore tries to resist her attraction to Rick.
She not only faces opposition from within the radio station but also from within Rick's family, because she is not from the right kind of family, coming from an immigrant background.
Whilst Kate starts out in print and radio, the most interesting part of the story is as she begins to make the move into the early days of television. She is given the opportunity to cover the electoral conventions which really opens doors for her career, with her unique ability to cover both in depth political news as well as giving it a female spin.
No matter how busy she is, Kate never forgets the little girl that she helped save, or Rick, so when he finds himself in trouble, it could be that Kate has the information needed to help save him.
When I read the first book in this series, I was excited to see where the trilogy was going to go. There was a whole group of interesting secondary characters in the world that Carey had created. The fact that this went in a different direction was a surprise to me. But to be fair, I don't think that the author did anything to suggest otherwise, but as a reader I did make an assumption. There is a loose connection between the first book and this one, but this is one of those occasions where there really, truly is no need to have read the first book in the series.
This was a really interesting story about a pioneering journalist, inspired by a real woman. I am going to be careful not to make any assumptions in relation to the next book in the trilogy. I will just wait and see what it has in store for us!
The truck stopped for a moment in the freezing, bombed-out street and Kate caught sight of a little girl in a ragged dress on the steps of a once-beautiful mansion. The child’s eyes were startling blue, a pair of endless pools, drawing Kate towards her…About the author
1946, Berlin. War correspondent Kate Mancini is in Germany, reporting on the aftermath of the devastating war. For her readers back home in New York, she tells the stories of innocent families, trying to rebuild the wreckage of their lives now the soldiers have left at last. But in the Russian-held sector of Berlin on an icy winter’s day, Kate breaks all the rules, rescuing Mia Stein, a silent orphan who she fears will otherwise perish.
Together with her fellow journalist, handsome Rick Shearer, Kate manages to find a safe house for Mia before she returns to America and vows to keep in touch. Back home, the reality of post-war life for women is stark. Whilst Rick walks into his dream job, no newspaper will hire a woman. The editors laugh her out of their offices, telling her to get married and raise a family. Rick does all he can to support her, as she takes her first steps towards the new medium of television news, and their friendship deepens into something more.
Then tragedy strikes: Rick is falsely named as a communist sympathizer. He is arrested, blacklisted and faces prison.
Kate knows she must do all she can to free the man she loves. But that means returning to Germany, to seek out the little orphan girl who is her only chance at salvation. Kate and Rick saved Mia—will she help them both now? And even if Kate succeeds, freedom might never be hers when she returns home…
From Amazon Charts bestseller Ella Carey comes an utterly heartbreaking historical novel, inspired by true events, about the courage, love and friendships that sustain us in the darkest of days. Fans of Fiona Davis, All the Light We Cannot See and My Name is Eva will be totally captivated.
Ella Carey is the international bestselling author of The Things We Don’t Say, Secret Shores, From a Paris Balcony, The House by the Lake, and Paris Time Capsule. Her books have been published in over fourteen languages, in twelve countries, and have been shortlisted for ARRA awards. A Francophile who has long been fascinated by secret histories set in Europe’s entrancing past, Ella has degrees in music, nineteenth-century women’s fiction, and modern European history. She lives in Melbourne with her two children and two Italian greyhounds who are constantly mistaken for whippets.
Ella loves to connect with her readers regularly through her facebook page and on her website.
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